 Never was a conflict in Canterbury more aptly named, or distinguished by greater confusion, for among the Ngāi Tahu of Canterbury, lines of allegiance had become so involved that strict application of the laws of vengeance, once the first few blows had been struck, gave almost every subdivision of the tribe and almost every family group a reason for attacking or distrusting its neighbours.Even after this destruction of the people of Taumutu in the late 1820s, the feud would probably have flared up again, but within a year or two the Canterbury Ngāi Tahu found it necessary to forget internal differences and to face the threat of invasion as Te Rauparaha and his Ngāti Toa struck their first blows against Ngāi Tahu's northern kinsmen in the Kaikoura district.By 1827 Te Rauparaha, who in 1822 had led his Ngāti Toa in their remarkable emigration from Kawhia to Waikanae and Kapiti, was beginning to attack the tribes of the northern part of the South Island, his warriors being armed with muskets as well as with Māori weapons.